Mother/Daughter Smoothies

Taking a sip of smoothie
Originally uploaded by bunnyfabulous

I like cooking and want to help Li'l Girlie get involved with it from early on and have fun with food. She's two, so I can't exactly hand her a knife and have her help chop, so I'd been trying to think of something she could help with on a regular basis. Then, to try get out of the rut of having cereal for breakfast every day, I started whipping up some healthy smoothies for the three of us, and our kitchen adventures began.



Li'l Girlie names the ingredients as I plop them into in the blender, and she, of course, is the official 'vroom-er' A.K.A. the person who pushes the buttons on the blender to make it go vroom. She takes her job very seriously, and consults with me on whether it needs more juice or soy milk. We pour it into glasses for Mommy and Daddy, and she gets to sip out of each.

Even better, these smoothies are super-healthy, delicious and contain VEGETABLES. Yes, it's a great way to get a little extra green into a choosy toddler's diet.

Here's my 'recipe.' I don't measure much of anything, so this is just my best guess as to the quantities.

1/2 banana
1/2 ripe avocado
1 cup frozen berries (strawberries, blackberries, raspberries or blueberries, or any combination thereof that appeals to you)
1 handful raw spinach leaves or raw kale greens
3/4 cup greek-style yogurt (we prefer vanilla, but fruit-flavored works well too)
1/2 cup soy milk (or regular milk if you want)
1/2 cup grape juice or berry juice blend

Put all ingredients in blender and blend together. Add more soy milk and/or grape juice if needed for consistency. If it's too thin, add more yogurt or banana.

This is to taste; if you need some more sweetness, add a bit of honey. Kale has a stronger taste than spinach, so you might want to go heavier on the other ingredients, especially the ones on the sweet end of the spectrum.

As Li'l Girlie would say.... mmm, mmm, mmm, mmm, that tastes good!  Her bunny gets a sip too.